The Budget and Modi's 'Neo Middle Class

PRIYANKA’S NOSTALGIA POLITICS CAN’T APPEAL TO YOUNG VOTERS >> p. 08

February 28, 2019 | Vol. 10 Issue 02 | ` 30 RNI No. UPENG/2010/33798 www.governancenow.com

Master Class the Budget and Modi’S ‘neo Middle claSS’ StRategY foR the electionS

When mere In pictures: Trafficking anarchy was Devotees take victims fight for loosed upon the holy dip in compensation Kolkata the Sangam from the state p.12 p.26 p.38 ‡ã Šã¶ ‡ã ƒ †½ îŠ ¶Ì ã ‚ ¶ Ô ãã ã ã ãÃ À ãÀ ãØ - ã † † Ô ½ ã

ã †

†

R G

A A R

N V M

N N I O K

आकाश अस्त्र प्रणाली AKASH WEAPON SYSTEM

^maV S>m`Zm{‘Šg {b{‘Q>oS> BHARAT DYNAMICS LIMITED • {‘ZraËZ loUr-1 H$m gmd©O{ZH$ ajm CnH«$‘ • A Miniratna Category - I Defence PSU • EZ Eg B© Am¡a ~r Eg B© _o gyMr~Õ • Listed in NSE and BSE • OwbmB©, 1970 ‘| ñWm{nV • Incorporated in July, 1970 • n[aMmbZ Ho$ à‘wI joÌ : • Core areas of operation: Ø g§M{bV àjonmó Am¡a g§~Õ CnH$aU Ø Guided Missiles and allied equipment. Ø A§VO©b-Aó Ø Underwater Weapons. Ø dm`wdmhH$ CËnmX Ø Airborne Products. Ø Ground Support Equipment. Ø ^y-AmYm[aV CnH$aU Ø Product Life Cycle Support. Ø CËnmX Ho McZo VH$ h‘H X‘

¼ããÀ¦ã ¡ã¾ã¶ãããä½ã‡ã‹Ôã ãäÊããä½ã›ñ¡ BHARAT DYNAMICS LIMITED (^maV gaH$ma H$m CnH«$‘, ajm ‘§Ìmb` A Govt. of India Enterprise, Ministry of Defence) ‡ãŠãù¹ããñÃÀñ› ‡ãŠã¾ããÃÊã¾ã : ¹Êããù› ¶ãâ. 38-39 ›ãè †Ôã †¹ãŠ Ôããè ¼ãÌã¶ã (‚ããƒÃ Ôããè ‚ããƒÃ Ôããè ‚ããƒÃ ›ãùÌãÔãÃ ‡ãñŠ ¹ããÔã) ¹ãŠãƒ¶ãòãäÍã¾ãÊã ãä¡ãäÔ›È‡ã‹›, em§{V H$m AmYma Aó-~b ØãÞÞããè ºãã„Êããè ÖõªÀãºããª - 500032 ¦ãñÊãâØãã¶ãã, ¼ããÀ¦ãý ƒÃ-½ãñÊã: [email protected] ÌãñºãÔããƒÃ›: http://www.bdl-india.in THE FORCE BEHIND PEACE Corporate Office: Plot No. 38-39, TSFC Building, (Near ICICI Towers) Financial District, Gachibowli, Hyderabad - 500032. Telangana INDIA E-mail:[email protected] Website: http://www.bdl-india.in FounDerS Team Gautam Adhikari Markand Adhikari Anurag Batra managIng DIrecTor Kailashnath Adhikari Contents ashish asthana eDITorIal DIrecTor Ajay Singh

Editor Ashish Mehta

Executive Editor POLITICAL ECONOmY SB Easwaran Assistant Editor Ridhima Kumar OF ThE bUdGET Special Correspondents Geetanjali Minhas (Mumbai), p.14 Praggya Guptaa (Special Projects)

Principal Correspondent Vishwas Dass

Senior Correspondents Deexa Khanduri, Rahul Trivedi

Senior Staff Writer Anushka Dixit

Design Bishwajeet Kumar Singh (Senior Designer) Noor Mohammad (Designer)

Photographer Arun Kumar

President - Sales & Marketing Ragini Shrivastava 09999673653

Sales Prem Kumar 09711888860 10 RIP George Fernandes Vaishali Gupta 08851228362 32 The firebrand leader was a Circulation & Distribution diehard proponent of anti- Devendra Kumar (Senior Manager) 09999140365 Congressism – but with Reinvigorating reinsurance Mahesh Bajpai (Executive) shifting loyalties 09711809117 Rahanuramin Lashkar 40 08879639953 IT 12 When mere anarchy was Santosh Gupta (Manager) Alok Mishra (Website Developer) loosed upon Kolkata Bengal slugfest was more Events Sunil Kumar, Astha Maheshwari, than politics, as Mamata is Shreya Tyagi defying federal norms

Manager HR Rekha Rajpoot Why every mother needs to 22 Informal power breastfeed A village brightens up and Printed & Published by Markand Adhikari on learns to manage a solar behalf of the Owner, SAB Events & Governance 50 Now Media Limited. Printed at Amar Ujala power grid Publications Ltd, C21,22 Sector 59, Noida, Distt Gautam Buddha Nagar, 201301 (UP), and On a personal note with published at Plot No.4 Wasme House, Sector singer Rabbi Shergill 16A, Film City, Noida 201301 (UP). Ph. 0120 4577999, Editor: Ashish Upendra 26 In pictures: Mehta (responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act.) The holy dip at Kumbh Lakhs of devotees throng Volume 10 Issue 02 Published for the fortnight Prayagraj to take a dip in the February 16-28, 2019. Released on Sangam, which they believe February 16, 2019. Total number of pages: 52 including covers. can rid them of their sins

RNI No. UPENG/2010/33798 www.governancenow.com

Cover Image: Ashish Asthana www.GovernanceNow.com 3 Briefings

4,600 applications for 14 sweeper jobs in Tamil Nadu he Tamil nadu assembly secretariat has received a total Tof 4,600 applications for jobs of 14 sweepers and sanitary workers. If that is not shocking enough then wait for more. Most of these applicants were overqualified for the job and held professional qualifications such as MTech, BTech, MBA, post-graduation and graduation degrees, as well as diplomas. a similar response was seen in January in maharashtra when 13 job vacancies opened up for waiters in the canteen at the Maharashtra secretariat, Mantralaya, requiring only class 4 passed candidates to apply: it got as many as 7,000 applications, most of them from college graduates. This comes at a time when an official survey reportedly claimed that India’s unemployment rate rose to a 45-year high during 2017-18.

ashish asthana

George Fernandes’ Twitter debutantes VERBATIM defence in Baroda Dynamite case fter social media-shy Mayawati, it’s time for Congress gener- “My younger brother Lawrence Fernandes was arrested on May aal secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to make her presence felt 1, 1976 in Bangalore. He was brutally tortured for 15 days, his on the social media platform – Twitter. As on February 12, Priyan- bones fractured, his teeth brokern. He was starved, denied even ka Gandhi had 1,55,000 followers, while BSP supremo had around drinking water, and was reduced to a physical and nervous 78,000 followers. It seems both the Twitter debutantes have real- wreck. He is still in prison. His only offence is that he refused to disclose my whereabouts to the dictator’s police. Another younger ised the importance of social media in an election year and want to brother, Michael, is in detention under MISA for over 13 months leave no stone unturned to engage with their voters. Though Priyan- now. My wife and 3-year-old son are in exile, but fighting. ka Gandhi joined the Twitter bandwagon almost four months after “Why is the state engaging itself in this ruthless pursuit against Mayawati, yet she is far ahead in terms of number of followers. me and my comrades? It is only because of our uncompromising opposition to the dictatorship of Mrs Gandhi. When the state controlled radio and the censored press were telling the world how the people of India had accepted Mrs Gandhi’s dictatorship and her dynastic rule, I was engaged in organising an underground resistance against her fascist dispensation. Those who joined me in this activity were men and women who were fired with the ideals of freedom and liberty, who were not willing to make any compromise with dictatorship; who were willing to stake everything in defence of human rights, who were willing to pay the price of their convictions. “Mrs Gandhi and her Establishment cannot countenance the existence of such uncompromising opposition to her authoritarianism. She not only feels the need to smother such opposition, but by organising this court room extravaganza she hopes to tell everyone of the fate that awaits anyone who may date sto stand up to her. [...] “Our struggle is for (1) democracy, (2) for fundamental rights, (3) for rule of law, (4) against Russian intervention in India’s internal affairs, (6) against corruption, (7) against rising prices, and (8) against unemployment. [...] “The underground document of July 1, 1975, which was extensively circulated in India and abroad is shown as D-390 in your file in the case against us. Its concluding lines are: Mahatma Gandhi’s methods will guide us in our struggle. Mahatma Gandhi will be the unseen leader of our movement to liberate the country from fascist tyranny. It will be Mrs Nehru Gandhi versus Mahatma Gandhi. “That statement still holds good.”

– From the statement before the chief metropolitan magistrate of Delhi, on February 10, 1977 (courtesy: www.georgefernandes.org)

4 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 ThIRd EyE by AjIT PAThAk Over 1,800 gifts to PM auctioned fortnight-long auction of memen- a tos received by narendra modi during his tenure as prime minister was held recently to raise funds for the centre’s flagship project ‘Namami Gange’ to clean and conserve the river Ganga. A wooden replica of the Ashok Stambh fetched Rs 13 lakh and a Lord Shiva statuette sold for Rs 10 lakh, much higher than their base prices. The base price of statuette of Lord Shi- va was Rs 5,000 and of wooden replica of the Ashok Stambh was Rs 4,000. Over 1,800 mementos were sold at the auction which took place in two parts: a physical auction organised at the national Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) for two days and an e-auction.

Photo: Pmmementos.gov.in

‘Nari Shakti’ makes its way to Oxford Dictionaries ari Shakti (women empowerment) has been chosen as the Hindi word of the nyear 2018 by Oxford Dictionaries. “Early March 2018 recorded a large spike in use of the term Nari Shakti as discussion arose around the Government of In- dia’s Nari Shakti Puraskar (Women Power Award), held annually on Internation- al Women’s Day,” an official statement said. This comes at a time when according to the National Crime Records Bureau data, crimes against women have recorded 83 percent increase from 2007 to 2016.

Wooden Replica When Google predicts Rahul Gandhi’s chances of Ashok Stambh auctioned for Rs 13,00,100

In about 280 characters 98.07% @GabbbarSingh @hussainhaidry Of govt schools have separate After #Budget2019 at matri- India ke saare problems ke monial meetings in small towns solution milte to hai Bandra girls toilets and 96.54% have “Ladka tax pay karta hai” ..will be a sta- West ki coffee shops mein baithe hue functional girls toilets tus symbol. logon ke paas. Pata nahin ye politician Source: Reply by the minister of drinking water and log in sab ko consult kyun nahin karte sanitation in Rajya Sabha

Visit us at www.governancenow.com n twitter.com/governancenow n facebook.com/governancenow

www.GovernanceNow.com 5 In-depth Prescient Timely b

l www.governancenow.com bold Visionary

Governance. It goes beyond politics and beyond headlines. It is about our lives, day by day. How an intricate web of people, politics, policy and performance shape our todays and our children’s tomorrows. Since 2010, Governance Now has been helping you make sense of this phenomenon; evolving a new kind of explanatory, pro-citizen journalism.

For Your Pound of Good Governance

For subscriptions contact Devendra Kumar l [email protected]. l +91 9999140365 For sales contact Ragini Shrivastava l [email protected]. l +91 9999673653 oPening coMMent Betting on The trouble with Priyanka’s Indira act: Today’s youth don’t remember even Rajiv, not to mention his mother

ajay Singh

Aandhi” (Storm), director Gul- zar’s movie starring Suchitra Sen and Sanjeev Kumar, was made in 1975, when Indira gandhi reigned supreme in In- dian“ politics. The film, based on Kam- leshwar’s Hindi novel ‘Kaali Aandhi’, depicted the life of a woman politician, and it was believed to be partly inspired by the life of the then prime minister. Suchitra Sen too apparently modelled her character on Indira in the way she spoke with authority to male colleagues or climbed on the stage with a sprint. “aandhi” obviously created a storm of controversy and could not be released till 1977 – only after Indira lift- ed the Emergency and was defeated in the elections. It did reflect a rather untouched theme of the 1970s politics, but few would recall that movie now to understand today’s politics. The political discourse has evolved around a new grammar; it has radically changed its axis. Perhaps nostalgia is the last resort of a dying politics. The Congress seems to be doing exactly that in Uttar Pradesh. Those finding an uncanny resemblance between Indira Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and flaunting it as her was facing the worst crisis of her po- Indira’s demise, the country’s political political asset are literally clutching at litical career after Operation Blue Star landscape has grossly changed. In the straws in the face of a storm. and her political prospects were bleak two large states, Uttar Pradesh and Bi- The argument that Priyanka would when she was assassinated. Except for har, the Congress has been struggling mobilise voters (60 percent of whom the groundswell of sympathy that elec- hard to retain even the third position are below 35 years of age) on the ba- torally benefitted the Congress and her whereas in those days they were con- sis of her facial resemblance to her son Rajiv Gandhi in 1984 following the sidered impregnable bastions of the grandmother is as absurd as it gets. tragedy, Indira has hardly been a factor Congress. Its regional leaders seemed It is almost 35 years since Indira was in any election since then. invincible. In Uttar Pradesh, the party assassinated. The reality was that she In more than three decades after had stalwarts like Kamlapati Tripathi, n nostalgia The trouble with Priyanka’s Indira act: Today’s youth don’t remember even Rajiv, not to mention his mother

In more than three inadequate an exercise to inspire confidence among people about her sin- decades after Indira’s cerity. She is apparently planning to play the victim card, accuse the Naren- demise, the country’s dra Modi regime of unleashing politi- political landscape has cal vendetta and stand by Vadra. But she must realise her limitations. grossly changed. In the It would be rather naïve to draw two large states, Uttar a parallel between Vadra’s case and Indira’s return to primacy after her Pradesh and Bihar, botched-up arrest by the Janata Party the Congress has been government after the Emergency. In- dira had inherited the legacy of her fa- struggling hard to retain ther, Jawaharlal Nehru, and emerged even the third position as a strong politician in her own right after 1966 by outmanoeuvring stal- whereas in those days warts like Morarji Desai, Nijlingappa they were considered and K Kamraj in 1971 by aligning herself with the poor and coining the slo- impregnable bastions of gan of ‘Garibi Hatao (banish poverty)’. the Congress. Contrast this with the image of Priyan- ka standing by her husband accused of amassing wealth abroad, and you know the difference. Far from appear- of the crowd she attracted during her ing like a tough and astute politician, tour belonged to a generation who she gives the impression of a harried would scarcely relate to even Rajiv, housewife defending the indefensible not to mention Indira. Moreover, in shenanigans of her wayward hus- the state, the Congress has been effec- band. That imagery may evoke a de- tively marginalised since 1989. And gree of sympathy for her but remain there is no doubt that the three de- bad politics. cades of consistent political margin- If there is any scope for Priyanka to alisation has debilitated the organisa- make an impact in Uttar Pradesh, she tional strength of the oldest political would do well to cast aside the hang-

twitter/incindia party to mere rubble of what was once over of the past. She is not Indira. And a magnificent palace. in politics personalities rise and fade Bir Bahadur Singh, VP Singh and ND Of course, there is a lot of scope away with the passage of time and Tiwari. The party’s state unit head- for the Congress to rebuild and resur- then remain relevant only for history. quarters at Mall Avenue used to be a rect that structure. But that requires a She may benefit from her background power hub parallel to the lucknow great deal of perseverance and fore- and the glamour quotient associated secretariat, the seat of the government. sight. Take, for the example, the man- with it to hog the limelight. But that is But all that grandeur of the past ner in which Priyanka carried out hardly an index of her political accept- was of little relevance on February 11 her roadshow and rushed back to be ability as a leader. n when Priyanka along with her broth- with her husband, Robert Vadra, who er, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, is facing an inquisition from the En- This comment has appeared on FirstPost. staged a roadshow in Lucknow. Much forcement Directorate (ED) is far too com people politics policy performance

Tribute

Fernandes strained his memory for a while and finally uttered, “Lalji.” “Yes,” said a delighted Advani, but RIP Fernandes his happiness was short-lived. Almost immediately Fernandes withdrew into his own world. The firebrand leader was But the Fernandes that the world and Advani, who narrated this inci- dent to me, will remember was anything but infirm. a diehard proponent of Fernandes was a stalwart of Indian politics. Jailed during the Emergency, he roared like a lion from inside the anti-Congressism – but cage. The picture showing him hand- cuffed outside the jail evoked -sympa thy across the country. Coming from a Christian family from Karnataka, with shifting loyalties he imbibed the true spirit of India. He transcended the boundaries of region, religion and caste. Fernandes was as much at ease in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai or Kolkata as in the backwaters of Bi- har – Muzaffarpur, Nalanda or Barh. In Bihar, he was even called George Fernandes “Mahto”, a surname he acquired on account of his close associa- tion with nitish Kumar who belongs to ajay Singh Kurmi caste. His family too bore the brunt of the government’s atrocities during the Emergency. His brother Lawrence t was some time in 2011. Lal Fernandes was arrested and tortured Krishna advani was in his for months on end as the firebrand chamber in the parliament com- leader gave police the slip and went plex waiting to receive george underground. His name figured in Fernandes, a long-time friend the famous Baroda dynamite case in andI comrade-in-arms. The ailing lead- which he was arraigned by the cen- er was ushered in, assisted by his wife, tral Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for Leila Kabir, and sundry aides. His There is no doubt that smuggling in explosives to blow rail- walk was infirm. Fernandes belonged to a way tracks and government facilities Advani looked at him quite pen- to protest against the Emergency. sively and asked, “Do you recognise genre of socialist leaders Perhaps Fernandes’s implication me, George?” Fernandes showed no who were exceptionally in the Baroda dynamite case signaled signs of familiarity. Disappointed, Ad- the brazen misuse of the government vani lamented: “You see, George, I am deft at defending the agencies to target political rivals. The in a strange position. I cannot talk to indefensible. Fernandes then prime minister Indira gandhi Atalji (Bihari Vajpayee) and Jaswantji triggered the decline of the CBI which (Singh). Now you also don’t recognise was endowed with the became irreversible till now. me.” Vajpayee died in August last year rare gift of gab that There is no doubt that Fernandes after being bed-ridden for around a belonged to a genre of socialist lead- decade during which time he could not proved to be his asset... ers who were exceptionally deft at de- recognise anybody. Singh continues to and liability as well. fending the indefensible. No doubt, he be in a similar state. emerged as hero in the post-emergen- Just as Advani was giving up hope, cy era and became industry minister

10 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 in the Morarji Desai government. Coming from a trade union background, he invoked the Swadeshi spirit of Mahatma gandhi to ban mncs like coca- Cola. Fernandes was endowed with the rare gift of gab that proved to be his asset... and liability as well. During the turmoil in the Janata Party government when chaudhary charan Singh re- volted against Desai, Fernandes had shown his inclination to side with Desai. He gave a long speech in the lok Sabha in support of the Desai government. He, however, conveniently switched his loyalties when Charan Singh formed the government with Indira’s help. Per- haps nothing caused as much damage to his credibility as that moment of political vacillation. He carried the image of a leader whose political be- liefs were always on shifting grounds. Except for the fact that he was a die-hard proponent of anti-Congressism, Fernandes was not averse to any tie-ups to grab power. He was with VP Singh during the Janata Dal government and later aligned with the BJP to oust Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar. In effect, his political constituency in the later phase of life was confined to Bihar, owing to his proximity to Bihari leaders who ranged against Lalu. Given Fernandes’s tall stat- ure, he became the pivot around which anti-lalu politics revolved. He formed the Sa- mata Party which later became Janata Dal (u) in which nitish occu- In the 2005 Bihar assembly election, chief ministerial candidate but bowed pied the pre-eminent position. Till the he seemed quite desperate to retain his to people’s pressure. That was the time 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Fernandes political hold. That was the time when for him to realise the great truism of maintained his relevance although he Nitish Kumar was declared the NDA’s politics: every great career in politics was marginalised within the NDA fold. chief ministerial candidate by Advani, tends to end eventually in a failure. n After the NDA lost power in 2004, once then BJP president and leader of oppo- again the CBI was used to implicate sition in the Lok Sabha. Fernandes was This comment has appeared on him in a dubious case of defence deals. not initially in favour of declaring any FirstPost.com

www.GovernanceNow.com 11 people politics policy performance

Comment When mere anarchy was loosed upon Kolkata

Bengal slugfest was more than politics, as Mamata is defying federal norms

ajay Singh promised to double the investment it became apparent that the Sarad- within three years. Many small inves- ha scheme was just the tip of the ice- tors fell prey to the glib talk of agents berg. Frauds of similar nature were who were largely recruited from the perpetrated over the entire eastern o make sense of what hap- local areas. In 2012 the scam explod- and northeast states. JVG, Rose Valley pened in Kolkata, one can ed as the SEBI asked the group not to and many others had robbed lakhs say that there is a political take any more money from investors, of investors. Ironically, some of these tug of war going on over the and agents who found themselves cor- groups even ran media houses and Saradha scam. To simplify nered by investors gheraoed the Trin- roped in prominent journalists and Tit further: the BJP is determined to ex- amool Congress office in Kolkata. film stars to burnish their credentials pand its influence in West Bengal, an Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and instil confidence among people. unchartered territory for the Hindu- then formed a special investigation Unsurprisingly, politicians and bu- tva forces, and Mamata Banerjee’s Tri- team (SIT) under the supervision of reaucrats turn out to be significant namool congress is retaliating against Rajeev Kumar who held the charge of beneficiaries of the systematic loot of it to retain its turf. But such simplifica- police commissioner, Bidhan Nagar. the most vulnerable social segment. tion will be a gross misreading of the Though he started probing the case, There is no doubt that Trinamool con- reality. gress with its rising political graph At the heart of the scam involving was reckoned as the biggest benefi- the Saradha Group of financial firms ciary when the supreme court in 2014 lie the interests of over a crore gullible expanded the scope of the investiga- investors spread across Jharkhand, There is no doubt that tion and called in the CBI to widen the Bihar, Odisha, and regions of the dragnet. As of now, the scale of the northeast who have been robbed off Mamata would have scam that involves Ponzi schemes in their hard-earned money to a group found less than a match West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, As- of fraudsters masquerading as entre- sam, Bihar and elsewhere is estimated preneurs and actively protected by if Narendra Modi were to be around over Rs one lakh crore. unscrupulous politicians and bureau- not the prime minister. The history of the case bears sig- crats. In the past seven years, over nificance in the present context as one hundred people have commit- Modi has had a stint as mamata sat on dharna in Kolkata to ted suicide in these regions owing to chief minister and now as protect Rajeev Kumar who is suspect- these brazen frauds known as Ponzi ed to have tinkered with evidence in schemes. prime minister, and thus the scam. Mamata, known for hitting The anatomy of these frauds was streets and rabble-rousing for popu- simple. In the absence of any institu- it was naïve to expect list causes, seems to have reversed her tional banking support for daily wage that Mamata would go politics in her constitutional role. She earners in these areas, small investors was seen as taking the side of the cor- were roped in with the promise of un- unchallenged. rupt and protecting a few of her favou- realistically high returns. They often rites at the expense of masses.

12 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 ashish asthana

Of course, the CBI sleuths going to to search Kolkata police com- the Kolkata police commissioner’s missioner’s residence was an residence without a warrant can overtly political move to assert be faulted on many counts. There the union government’s right and were several alternative ways dismiss any delusions that mamata to handle the situation to deal may be entertaining of being the sole with a non-cooperating gov- arbiter of defining terms of relations ernment functionary. For with the centre. instance, a defiant Lalu The fact that the supreme court Prasad Yadav found had to intervene speaks volumes himself cornered when about the chief minister’s anar- he was charge-sheet- chic ways. The apex court even- ed in the fodder scam tually paved the way for the CBI in 1997. He had to to question Rajeev Kumar. resign as chief min- Before that, however, Ma- ister after much mata had reacted to the CBI protest. A simi- moves in the manner of a lar, calibrated streetfighter but this time approach could for a wrong cause. Remem- have been less ber the image of Mamata be- controversial and ing dragged out of the Writers more effective. Building by Jyoti Basu’s police But consider the or holding massive protests way politics unfold- wearing simplicity on her ed in West Bengal. De- sleeves as a leader of the spite holding a constitution- common people? That im- al post, Mamata defied every age of her younger days norm of the constitution. Her gets distorted when she is government blocked prime today seen in company of minister Narendra Modi’s ral- bureaucrats and political lies in West Bengal, banning BJP-or- leaders with dubious ganised marches and prohibiting BJP antecedents. president Amit Shah from Perhaps Mamata holding meetings and seemed too impatient yatras in the state. More to wait for the oppo- recently, she literally sition to rally around banned the operations her for the 2019 Lok of CBI and enforcement Sabha polls. In the directorate (eD) in West process, she invent- Bengal in contravention of ed a wrong cause to federal norms. Apparently, project her leader- her garrulousness is clearly ship. In his lecture on more than a political fight. She seems ‘Politics as vocation’, to be aggressively pushing boundaries german sociologist max on the issues pertaining to federalism Weber writes, “Politics is and challenging the authority of the a strong and slow boring of centre and its jurisdiction. hard boards. It takes both There is no doubt that mamata passion and perspective.” would have found less than a match Mamata has enough of pas- if Narendra Modi were not the prime sion but she seems to be lack- minister. Modi has had a stint as chief ing in perspective in her choice minister and now as prime minis- of Modi as her adversary. n ter, and thus it was naïve to expect that Mamata would go unchallenged. This comment has appeared on First- There is no doubt that the attempt Post.com in a slightly different form.

www.GovernanceNow.com 13 BUDGET Master Class

14 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 Master Class ajay Singh hose who have gained the most from the lat- est budget are the ones who are going to have the most crucial impact on the lok Sabha election results. Who are they? They are hiding in plain sight. They Modi has been haveT come to work in metros and cities, probably in recent years. They crowd inter-state bus terminals to take relentlessly a bus home during long holidays and festival breaks. They ply rickshaws or trades, maybe set up small shops on focusing on the the roadside. They hold entry-level jobs in swank offices. Your courierwala, ‘neo middle your carpenter, your electrician-cum- plumber. Theirs is the first generation that has pulled itself above the poverty class’ to invent line. But they are yet to acquire all the trappings of the middle class, things like a home theatre, for instance. They a new politics belong to what prime minister narendra Modi has for over seven years iden- of development tified as the “neo middle class”. And they are going to decide India’s future. They form about a fifth of the popu- beyond stale caste lation, a substantial chunk of voters, if we take the figure from the 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) equations. It can of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and help the BJP in Human Development Initiative (OPHI): 27 crore people moved out of poverty in the decade since 2005-06. The actual returning to power number may be more, if we extend the timeline to the post-1991 reforms. Poli- tics is, of course, much more than mere numbers, and hence their political significance. And Narendra Modi sensed this much before everyone else. The genesis of the term – not yet a well-defined concept, and not figur- ing in statistics, official or otherwise – can be dated with precision: it was on

ashish asthana www.GovernanceNow.com 15 BUDGET

Helping hand for the new middle class December 3, 2012, when Modi – then chief minister of Gujarat – spoke of this emerging group. Releasing the BJP’s Sankalp Pa- Housing tra ahead of the assembly elections, he said n In urban areas, interest subvention of 4% for the manifesto had “taken special care of the neo middle class that has emerged in the last loans of up to Rs 9 lakh and of 3% for loans of up 10 years and is enjoying the fruits of devel- to Rs 12 lakh opment”. The working definition of this new n In rural areas, loans of up to Rs 2 lakh taken for class was those who were not but now have become part of the middle class “due to the new housing or extension will receive interest quantum leap of development in the last one subvention of 3% year”. Elsewhere, the document spoke of “neo n The number of rural houses under PMAY (lower) middle class”. In 2014, with Modi as prime ministerial can- increased by 33% didate, the BJP came to focus on this class at the national level. The manifesto reflected this shift: Agriculture “India has a large middle class with immense understanding, talent and purchasing power. In addition, a n Farmers who have taken loans for rabi crop whole new class has emerged. Those who have risen exempted from interest for 60 days from the category of poor and are yet to stabilize in n Government adds Rs 20,000 crore to the the middle class, the ‘neo middle class’.” More specifically, they have moved out of pov- Nabarad fund to ensure cheap credit to farmers erty, and now they have more aspirations: they n 3 crore Kisan Credit Cards will be upgraded to want to go to a private hospital for healthcare and RuPay debit cards send their children to a private school (preferably with English medium). “They want amenities and services of a certain standard. They thus now feel Small and Medium Enterprises that government facilities and services are not up to the mark, and hence resort to the private sector for n Govt will underwrite loans given by NBFCs things like education, health and transport. This is to enable better access to credit for small obviously costly, putting the neo middle class into a enterprises daily dilemma.” Thus, BJP’s promised “proactive handholding” to n Govt has asked banks to raise credit limit for this class in these areas: small industry from 20% of turnover to 25% n Banks have been asked to increase working n Educational scholarships and educational facilities capital loans from 20% of turnover to 30% for n Medical insurance and quality healthcare services n middle-income housing enterprises that transact digitally n Efficient public transport systems n Govt to double Mudra allocations, giving priority Many analysts have credited Modi’s 2014 victory to dalits, tribals, backward classes and women on his focus on this group, and the NDA government led by him has in return consistently sought to hold the hands of this group. From the first lines of the Maternal and child health first budget of this government, to the PM’s reactions to the final budget of its term – with sundry schemes n A nationwide scheme for financial assistance to and initiatives in between, from Smart Cities to Ay- pregnant women ushman Bharat – the neo middle class is having its n Rs 6,000 will be transferred directly to pregnant moment under the sun. women who undergo institutional delivery and (See box for a list of announcement from the budget 2019 that are tailor-made for the new middle vaccinate their children class.) n This scheme will help reduce maternal mortality “It is good to see more people being removed from rate and help ensure nutrition before and after the shackles of poverty. Our neo middle class is rising and so are their dreams,” the PM said in his re- delivery marks after finance minister Piyush Goyal presented his budget.

16 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 Photos: arun kumar

Why is Modi banking so much on this class? A cru- cultivating this class across the country with one af- cial factor underpinning Modi’s Gandhinagar stint ter another welfare scheme, starting with the one an- and now also the Delhi innings is his attempt to go nounced during his first address to beyond caste-based politics and expand the BJP’s the nation from the Red Fort: PM voter base. Vikas, or development, is the catchword Jan-Dhan Yojana, opening a record that expresses both moves. Professor Christophe Jaf- number of new bank accounts and in the past five years, frelot, a regular commentator, has astutely observed offering formal banking services that “class-based voting patterns have contributed to to those coming out of poverty. the PM has been the success of Narendra Modi, not only because he At the same time, he has been cultivating this class has capitalized on the support of the middle class, providing a push to this class to traditionally pro-BJP, but also because he has attract- come out of ‘ghettoisation’ and across the country ed large sections of the emerging ‘neo-middle class’, dream for a brighter future. Miss- with one after another an aspiring social category born out of the economic ing in this narrative is the ro- growth of the previous decade.” mance of poverty, the Congress’s welfare scheme, This development has “put the very notion of the favourite script. The neo middle starting with the one OBCs in question, in particular in the Hindi belt, its class is the new aam aadmi, with announced during his stronghold in the 1990s. The BJP has benefited from dignity. Modi’s own story of be- the differentiation of the OBCs in socio-economic coming a prime minister from a first address to the terms. Its upwardly mobile layer expected from tea seller is inspiring for this class nation from the Red Modi jobs and ‘development’ in general,” Jaffrelot to look at the future with hope, not wrote in 2015. despondency. fort: Jan-dhan Yojana. This strategy also helps expand the BJP’s core sup- modi clearly holds out a prom- port base, the urban middle-class, and thus ensure ise, while his adversaries are busy against a repeat of 2004, when they had deserted the drawing a regressive and sad pic- party. Under Modi, the BJP has long since junked its ture of India. The opposition is emulating exactly the traditional image of a baniya/trader class party and model that failed in Gujarat. It is unlikely to succeed insulated itself against caste-based identity politics – at the national level as well. n with the help of the neo middle class. In the past five years, the prime minister has been [email protected]

www.GovernanceNow.com 17 BUDGET Budgeting for dreams Modi clearly holds out a promise, while his adversaries are busy drawing a regressive and sad picture of india

ajay Singh the BJP to revolt against Modi as he had replaced Keshubhai Patel in the state. The official had advised Modi to n official who worked hold back on the move till the elections closely with narendra to avoid any “adverse impact” on the modi during his stint as the outcome. Modi’s response: “Don’t bother chief minister of Gujarat about the elections, as I will handle it. Do told me an anecdote to what is good for the people.” aexplain his style of working. Just before Modi went on to win the 2007 the 2007 state assembly elections, elections despite a determined attempt Modi had found himself pitted against to stoke a farmer rebellion against him. a strong lobby of Patel farmers and the A look at the summary Gujarat also became the first state to RSS-backed Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. of Goyal’s budget speech successfully implement power sector What got the goat of the affluent reforms and ensure uninterrupted Patidars was Modi’s tough decision would explain how the electricity supply to common people. of separating power feeders for grammar of politics has If one examines the way Modi ran the agriculture and making farmers pay for Gujarat government, it will be apparent it. Earlier, having a common feeder for been changing during the that his style of functioning remains agriculture and domestic use had made past five years. He talks unchanged as the prime minister. He it difficult to gauge how much electricity is arguably the only politician who had was consumed solely for agricultural about building an India a long, uninterrupted stint of 18 years purposes. Given the massive subsidy that will have a surfeit as a chief minister and prime minister allotted for agriculture, domestic considered together. The 2019 interim power consumption was also reckoned of clean and renewable budget is a clear example of a Modi who as agricultural consumption. energy, electric cars plans for a decade, even when he is set The feeder separation made life to face an uncertainty three months difficult for farmers. They now had and a transparent and down the line in the general elections. to pay. Non-payment of dues led to equitable society. Look at the manner in which finance hundreds of arrests, mostly of Patidars minister Piyush Goyal outlined the who were provoked by a group within country’s financial health till 2030. For

18 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 those watching the immediate future, census of land-owning farmers in an aspirational class that realises its he assured them that within two years, India. As of now, there are many gaps dreams and secures its future. income tax filings will be scrutinised in digitisation of land records and A look at the summary of Goyal’s through a technological interface with accuracy about the land-ownership budget speech would explain how the no human intervention. Of course, pattern in the community. grammar of politics has been changing Goyal’s words were music to the ears Moreover, the government’s pension during the past five years. He talks about of a large section of genuine taxpayers scheme for workers of the unorganised building an India that will have a surfeit in business and industry. If such a sector, instead of being a freebie, is of clean and renewable energy, electric situation does materialise, it will put an clearly an attempt to incentivise future cars and a transparent and equitable effective end to corruption in one of the planning among the most vulnerable society. This stand is a sharp contrast most corrupt arms of the government. strata of society. Under this scheme, to the pro-poor rhetoric that finance Similarly, the government’s decision unorganised sector workers, who ministers have deployed in the past to provide Rs 6,000 annually to farmers constitute nearly 94 percent of the while delivering a pre-election budget. with landholdings less than 2 hectares workforce, will be able to avail a Modi clearly holds out a promise, will cover nearly 90 percent of the pension of Rs 3,000 per month after while his opponents are busy drawing farming community in the country. This 60 years of age by making a nominal a regressive, sad picture of India. The amount is not meant for sustenance, contribution. The scheme is intended to opposition is emulating exactly the but is aimed at encouraging farmers to encourage workers of the unorganised model that failed in Gujarat. It is unlikely inculcate banking habits. At the same sector to have a stake in their future to succeed at the national level as well. n time, the entire exercise would also planning. Far from promising a freebie, update and digitise land records across this government initiative aims to This comment has appeared on FirstPost. the country and carry out an accurate nudge the working class into becoming com in a slightly different form.

www.GovernanceNow.com 19 BUDGET

Missing: The woman farmer despite their high numbers, they are barely visible and budgets have not done enough for them

Sakshi Rai

and rights structurally es- according to previous reports by cape women. This is a fun- The income guarantee the National Sample Survey Office damental issue in under- scheme of Rs 6,000 (NSSO), the agrarian sector employs standing why women’s nearly 80 percent women workers. work as farmers is largely per annum under the Despite such high numbers, both the invisible.l However, the large-scale Pradhan Mantri Kisan sector and the macroeconomic policy migration of men towards pursuing framework are yet to recognise them other non-farm employment opportu- Samman Yojana for as farmers. Moreover, 81 percent of nities due to the worsening agrarian farmers owning less the female agricultural labourers be- crisis has pushed more women into long to dalit, adivasi and OBC commu- this sector. Work is not homogenous than 2 hectares of land nities (ILO, 2010). The largest share and neither are women or their work. announced in the interim of casual and landless labourers also Perceiving work through economic comes from these social groups. The lens, the policy framework falls short budget is also outside burden of the agricultural debt has in addressing the invisible and open the framework as most also inadvertently fallen upon women. unemployment of women along with When unpacking schemes for wom- increasing trends of feminisation in women in agriculture do en farmers, the Mahila Kisan Sashak- the sector. The first task for women in not own land. tikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) is the only the sector remains being identified as sub-programme under the Deendayal a ‘farmer’. Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural

20 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 arun kumar allocations under various schemes* (in crore)

4000 3764

3500 2917 3000 2805 2525 2500 2220 2260 2000

1500

1000

500

0 2014-15 A 2015-16 A 2016-17 A 2017-18 A 2018-19 BE 2019-20 BE

MKSP is a sub-programme the allo- 2014 shows that the fund utilisation cations for 2019-20 (BE) are yet to be for these schemes has systematically published. While the allocations for declined with marginal increases in al- NRLM have increased over the years, location in years 2018-19 and 2019-20. increase in allocations for MKSP has It should be noted that the budget for yet to be realised effectively. In fact, the ministry of agriculture increased the trends since 2014 show that not from Rs 57,600 crore in 2018-19 (BE) to only does the policy framework suf- Rs 1,40,764 crore in 2019-20 (BE). The fers low levels of allocation and spend- total allocations for women farmers ing but also show how misplaced the in 2018-19 (BE) under the above-men- government’s priorities continue to be tioned schemes are 2 percent of the in the agrarian sector with respect to total expenditure under the ministry women farmers. The sub-programme of agriculture for the same year. This under NRLM for Mahila Kisan needs amount is too little to provide cover- livelihood mission (DaY-nrlm) par- to be scaled up and backed with image for the conservative number of 8-9 ticularly aimed at women farmers. proved resource mobilisation plans, crore households. The NRLM aims to reach out 8-9 crore which may not be enough as work for The income guarantee scheme of rural poor households in an effort to women farmers also varies regionally. Rs 6,000 per annum under the Prad- organise 1 woman per household into Moreover, transparency in the process han Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana for self-help groups to take up organic of identifying and registering women farmers owning less than 2 hectares of farming in clusters. As per the minis- farmers is crucial for better outcomes. land announced in the interim budget try of rural development’s circular, “a as per the reply given by the minis- is also outside the framework as most total of 57,270 Mahila Kisan have been try of agriculture in Lok Sabha on Au- women in agriculture do not own land. registered through 5,816 local groups gust 2, 2016, budgetary allocations for In the absence of schemes designed es- for taking up organic farming”. The women farmers have been made at 30 pecially for women farmers, there is same circular also identifies nearly percent on various schemes like Sub- little the government has been able to 14.03 lakh of women farmers under Mission on Agriculture Mechanisation, achieve to minimise gaps in land and the State rural livelihoods mission National Food Security Mission, Rash- asset ownership, wage gap, supportive and MKSP. As one can see, women triya Krishi Vikas Yojana, National infrastructure, access to credit, subsi- are at the centre of implementing the Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm, Sub- dised fertilizers, recognition to entitle- objectives of organic farming of the Mission on Seed and Planting Material ments among others. n government. However, the total bud- and Mission for Integrated Develop- getary allocation for MKSP in 2018- ment of Horticulture (National Mis- Rai works with Centre for Budget and Gov- 19 (BE) was a mere Rs 1,000 crore. As sion on Horticulture). The trend from ernance Accountability (CBGA), New Delhi.

www.GovernanceNow.com 21 people politics policy performance

Development Informal power a village brightens up and learns to manage a solar power grid

deexa Khanduri the money to buy electricity. Thanks to Samuday, a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative of IT giant HCL, he gets it free. In October 2018, Samu- day offered them electricity from a so- illages without power sup- lar grid and promised fixed hours of ply are easy to find though supply at prices reached by consensus. the government says there The villages responded enthusiastical- are none. The lines are ly: 120 of the 182 households enrolled, laid, but many villagers are though the installation charge was only tooV poor to pay for electricity. BPL (be- a rupee cheaper than the government’s low poverty line) families, entitled to charge of Rs 500. Forty houses having free supply, are waived the installation government connections signed on for charge. But they don’t have money to the solar-grid project as a fallback. wire their homes. Others are held back What won them over was Samu- by the fear that bills will rise beyond day’s collaborative, pragmatic ap- reach. proach. Navpreet Kaur, director of “Electricity is like a star,” says Samuday, says it took time to convince Vinod, a barber who also works as a the villagers. “They had accepted lack farmhand. “Everyone wishes for it, but of electricity as a fact of life. They were few can afford it.” also ignorant of how electricity could He knows that well: it’s only a cou- change their lives. We organised meet- ple of months since electricity arrived ings involving men, women, village at his home in Uchauli village, Hardoi elders, the pradhan. People had as- district, some 70 km from Lucknow. sumed that bills would shoot up after In May 2017, the government declared five or six months. But we told them that the village had been electrified. they would themselves calculate and But only a few signed up for connec- set the tariff based on the appliances tions. Villagers and voluntary groups each household used. They were final- say officials denied people like Vinod ly convinced.” a free connection, saying they weren’t The project took about two years: on the BPL list. surveys had to be conducted, village- It isn’t as if Vinod suddenly found level committees had to be formed,

22 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 ashish asthana

operational set-ups had to be designed and implemented, solar panels and grid lines had to be installed. Kaur says the team strove to arrive at affordable pricing. “If you distribute something for free, nobody values it. We want villagers to bear the basic maintenance cost. They should not depend on us. Right now, we supply power for eight hours daily. At the base price, every house gets to run two LED lamps. If someone wants to run a fan, a refrigerator, a TV set or other things, the bill goes up ac- cordingly,” she says. The Samuday team reached out to those who did not enroll despite the village-level meetings. “We checked out their financial condition, and for people like Vinod, who really couldn’t afford it, we installed meters free of cost,” says Kaur. The team also

“Electricity is like a star. Everyone wishes for it, but few can afford it.”

Vinod, who recently got free power supply at his house

“In 2014, I lived with my youngest son in Noida for one month. He gets electricity for 18-22 hours a day. For urban people, it’s considered a basic need; for us, it’s considered a privilege.”

Shivrani, of Malhpur, hardoi district, uP

www.GovernanceNow.com 23 people politics policy performance

Development

Photo: hcl samuday

The solar panels and supply grid set up by HCL as a CSR initiative in Uchauli, Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh. The IT giant has set up such grids in 13 villages of the district.

electrified the local health centre and coal-burning plants pollute,” says Kaur. privilege. I always wanted electricity schools. They don’t have to pay for “India has committed to producing 30 in my village.” electricity. percent of its electricity needs from re- Her house, where she lives alone Samuday has installed 13 solar grids newable sources by 2030, and electri- after her three sons left to work in cit- in Hardoi district: besides Uchauli, the fying villages with solar energy is one ies, is made of bricks plastered with villages are Kantha, Dugnai, Dhautera, step towards achieving that goal.” mud. The roof is covered with tarpau- Tutiyara, Samuda-Tajpur, Fatehup, many villagers are acutely aware lin to prevent leaks during the rain. A Darshankhera, Bhiri, Malhpur, Gujreh- of how cities have better government- chulha, some clothes, a few utensils – ta, Basantpur, and Mavaee. They gen- supplied amenities. Shivrani, a 62-year- she owns little. But when Samuday ap- erate 302 KWs and power some 2,000 old widow who lives in malhpur vil- proached her, she readily signed on. households and 215 street lights, be- lage, says, “In 2014, I lived with my (In fact, all 152 households in Malhpur sides health centres, schools and other youngest son in Noida for one month. signed up.) facilities. All grids will eventually be He gets electricity for 18-22 hours a “The government definition of pow- managed by the villagers. day. For urban people, it’s considered er supply is vague. They promise wires, “Solar grids are the way forward, as a basic need; for us, it’s considered a poles, bulbs, meters...but not proper supply. Samuday provides fixed and guaranteed power supply. This bright- Boardly speaking ens the future of our children,” Shivra- ni says. Outside every village recently electrified It also fosters self-reliance. Says by the government, there are boards Samuday head Kaur, “We want villag- such as this one. They declare that the ers to take responsibility for the solar village has been electrified under the grids. The life cycle of the batteries is Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yo- 25 years, though the solar panels have jana (also known as Saubhagya) or the lifetime warranties. We have estimat- Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yo- ed the household needs in these vil- jana. This board is in a village in Uttar lages for the next 25 years. Schneider Pradesh, a state in which the govern- Electric, who set up the grids, trained ment claims all 74.78 lakh homes have village youths in maintenance, repair, power supply. What many boards, like this one, really say is that electricity has been brought to etc. When we leave, we want people to the village and that “those interested” in signing up have been provided electricity. Affordability, n encouraging villagers to sign up by offering incentives – alas, the government mechanism rarely take ownership of the grid.” works with sensitivity that will consider those questions. [email protected]

24 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019

spell of aquarius

The Kumbh Mela being held in Prayagraj this year has seen lakhs and lakhs of visitors, drawn here by faith. They believe a holy dip in the Sangam, during this auspicious period, can rid them of sin and point the way to salvation. . .

26. GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 PHOTOS BY ARuN KuMAR

www.GovernanceNow.com 27 Sadhus, Naga babas of various akhadas, common folk – the Kumbh mela is a confluence of the wonderful variety of paths that Hinduism offers to its followers.

Bhang, ganja, charas are all derivatives of cannabis, which is considered prasad of Lord Shiva. Sadhus smoke it freely. No one minds.

28 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 Sadhus, Naga babas of various akhadas, common folk – the Kumbh mela is a confluence of the wonderful variety of paths that Hinduism offers to its followers.

The akhadas of the Naga sadhus are a special attraction at every Kumbh. When they frolic in the water, it’s a boisterous sight.

www.GovernanceNow.com 29 When lakhs gather daily in one spot, people are bound to get lost. Especially children and the aged. (Inset) At a booth for the lost, announcements are made.

30 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 www.GovernanceNow.com 31 people politics policy performance

Finance Reinvigorating reinsurance Why do private enterprises in india shy away from this sector?

Prithu Sharma got an impetus. Pursuant to the Insur- (Life Insurance-Reinsurance) Regula- ance Act, 2015, foreign reinsurers and tion 2013. Lloyd’s have been allowed to open their branches in India to transact Reinsurance challenges reinsurance business in the country. The reinsurance sector in the country fter the liberalisation of Additionally, IRDAI has also allowed is plagued and constrained by the twin the insurance industry in insurers to open their offices in In- issues of regulatory discrimination 2000, private firms (most- ternational Financial Services Centre, against private players and the limited ly in partnerships with Gujarat-SEZ, and transact reinsurance size of the market. Let’s sequentially foreign firms) have read- business. elucidate both the issues below. Aily taken to the sector. Till FY18 there Consequent to the relaxations Regulatory discrimination: IrDaI were 23 private firms in the life insur- granted to reinsurers in 2015, the reg- has always stipulated that the reinsurance sector and 21 in general insur- ulations governing them have been ance programme of reinsurers and in- ance segment. However, it was only in laid out in IrDaI (registration and op- surers operating in the country should 2016-17 that the first private domestic erations of Branch Offices of Foreign be guided by the objective of, amongst reinsurance firm, ITI Reinsurance, en- Reinsurers other than Lloyd’s) Regula- others, maximising retention within tered the industry and was yet to be- tions 2015, IRDAI (Lloyd’s India) Regu- the country, subject to proper and ad- gin operations by the end of FY18. A lations 2016, and IRDAI (Re-insurance) equate diversification of risks (Section major reason for the muted interest of Regulations, 2018 which repealed 3(1), IRDAI (Re-insurance) Regulations, private enterprises in the reinsurance both IrDaI (general Insurance-rein- 2018). sector was, and to an extent remains, surance) Regulations 2016 and IRDAI The above objectives are also re- the regulations governing the sector. flected in the reinsurance regulations The mandate to the Insurance reg- of the past and present. To illustrate ulatory and Development Authority of the point, as per Section 101A of the India (IRDAI) in respect of reinsurance Insurance Act 1938, every Indian in- lies in the provisions of Section 14(1) surer must cede a certain percentage and 14(2) Sub Section (f) of the IRDAI The reinsurance sector of the sum assured on each policy for Act, 1999 as well as Sections 2 (9) d, in the country is plagued different classes of insurance written 34F, 101A, 101B and 101C of the Insur- in India to Indian reinsurers. ance Act, 1938. IRDAI subsequently has and constrained by the Further, it has been explicitly in- framed regulations pertaining to rein- twin issues of regulatory cluded in the 2018 reinsurance regu- surance by both life and general insur- lations that insurers after obtaining ers, which lay down the ground rules discrimination against best terms for ceding from all Indian for transacting reinsurance business. private players and reinsurers, transacting business dur- It was only after the Insurance ing the immediate past three years Laws (Amendment) Act 2015 (Insur- the limited size of the and at least four Foreign Reinsurer’s ance Act hereafter), which bought market. Branches in India (FRBs), have to of- pervasive changes to the Insurance fer the best terms for participation in Act, 1938, that the reinsurance sector an order of preference, such that the

32 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 first right of refusal lies with Indian re- and reinsurance market to such a insurers who have been active during magnitude that gIc re is stretched in the immediate past three years. This its operations and there is a consider- implies that general Insurance cor- able spillover of reinsurance business poration of India (GIC Re) has the first to the private players. Following are right of refusal. the ways to do so. Hence, even after ceding the mandatory percentage to Indian reinsur- table 1: expected effect of disasters on gdP of ers, which is GIC for all practical purposes, an offer must be made to GIC for selected indian cities all the reinsurance deals and gIc may accept in whole or in part. Such an order of preference regulation is tantamount to granting monop- flood gdP at Risk (uSd bn)* oly rights to the state reinsurer GIC, which already has historical advantag- es. Monopoly powers in a reinsurance 1.29 setting not only allow for inefficiencies tropical Winds to creep in but additionally, the anti- competitive nature of such a market gdP at Risk (uSd bn)* prevents innovation. This happens earthquake as the firms find their profits- dimin 0.56 gdP at Risk (uSd bn)* ished by cost of regulatory compliance and, therefore, not adequate to under- take such endeavours and service the 0.19 market. Limited insurance market size: The scope for reinsurance in India is severely constrained by the abysmally low insurance penetration, especially that of general insurance (see Figure 1). The non-life insurance penetration levels have never crossed the thresh- *Expected annual loss to the cities of Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, old of 1 percent since the sector was Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Surat, Chennai, Kanpur from respective disasters Source: liberalised. Further, if we take into ac- Lloyd’s City Risk Index 2015-25 count the fact that the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 mandates (under section 146) that every vehicle be compulso- but unlike India, widespread availing rily insured for third-party risk, the Catastrophe insurance: For long In- of insurance has meant that 48 percent penetration level falls by another 40 dia has suffered dearly from the vaga- of the damages from the hurricanes/ percent, since motor insurance gross ries of mother nature. Little has been storms since 1999 are insured (Source: premiums have accounted for more done in the way of recompensing the em-DaT: The emergency events Data- than 40 percent of total non-life gross monetary damage from such disas- base - Université catholique de Lou- premium constantly since 2001. ters. The concept of catastrophe insur- vain (UCL) - CRED, D. Guha-Sapir - Hence, with limited insurance ance is largely unknown, and when www.emdat.be, Brussels, Belgium). reach there might not be enough busi- known, it is seldom utilised. The total losses and the uninsured ness available for ceding to trigger The dismal provisioning of catas- losses from the major disasters that the economies of scale for reinsurers. trophe insurance is in spite of the fact occurred in India between 1999 and a low business volume is especially a that calamities have led to huge unin- 2017 were approximately 1.5 and 1.4 concern for domestic reinsurers since sured losses in the past. Major disas- percent of the average Indian GDP be- they do not have international pres- ters since 1999 have led to losses of tween 2014 and 2017 (Calculation done ence to offset this constraint. more than $33 billion of which only using World Bank current GDP data). 7.2 percent damages were insured. Additionally, it has been estimated that increasing reinsurance depth This is in stark contrast to the sce- more than $2 billion of major Indian The way around the aforementioned nario in countries, which make exten- cities’ GDP is at risk each year from order of preference regulatory hurdle sive use of insurance. The USA is rou- floods, tropical winds and earthquakes is to increase the size of the insurance tinely ravaged by hurricanes/storms, (see Table 1). Therefore, we see that not

www.GovernanceNow.com 33 people politics policy performance

Finance

figure 1: non-life penetration in india (in %)

Penetration, non-life 1

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5 FY 02 FY 03 FY 04 FY 05 FY 06 FY 07 FY 08 FY 09 FY 10 FY 11 FY 12 FY 13 FY 14 FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18

Source: IRDAI only have disasters wreaked havoc in huge premium expense such an exer- the contention clear. Between FY06 the past but remain an imminent dan- cise would entail. and FY16, Indian general insurers ger in the present and near future. However, a way around the issue maintained a net retention ratio in the By increasing the awareness of con- can be worked out and a specialised range of 83-94 percent of gross direct cepts like catastrophe insurance, the plan, implementable in phases, can premium, while the comparable fig- pool available for ceding is bound to be operationalised given the extent ures for OECD countries ranged from register a multi-fold increase. Even if of business being offered to insur- 72-74 percent. the retail uptake of insurance is slow, ance firms. Such plans, which advo- The primary effect of such high re- the government can start insuring its cate mandatory insurance of private tention levels is that the benefit of ced- businesses and properties to expedite homes in highly vulnerable areas, gov- ing sufficient amount of insurance to the process. ernment properties and public utilities reinsurers is not accrued by Indian Government-provided public infra- have been mooted by both the insur- insurers. Reinsurers by taking on the structure like water pipelines, electri- ance regulator IrDaI and national Di- risks of primary insurers free up the cal installations, ports, airports, rail- saster management authority (nDma) insurer’s capital and allow them to ways, government buildings, etc. often in their discussion paper titled ‘Disas- write more business. In this way they bear the brunt of the disasters when- ter Relief and Risk Transfer Through create a virtuous cycle wherein the ever the two cross paths. Between 2010 Insurance’ (2013). increased stability from insurance re- and 2017, the damages to public utili- With the influx of government and produces itself and feeds into the eco- ties from heavy rainfalls and floods retail business and the subsequent in- nomic growth. This is in addition to alone were in excess of Rs 1 trillion crease in sum assured, there will be a the domain expertise that reinsurers or $19.4 billion (conversion in USD is spate in the insurance being ceded to re- provide and which is seldom found done using annual, currency exchange insurers, not all of it accruing to GIC Re. with primary insurers. data from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Lowering the Net Retention: The re- Clearly, with increased ceding by the Louis), and was 54 percent more than insurance market in India is doubly insurers, the reinsurance market will the damages caused from such events constrained in that both the primary get a fillip and become more attractive to houses and crops. In spite of incur- insurance reach and the subsequent for foreign/private reinsurers. n ring such high losses from natural di- ceding of it to reinsurers are limited. A sasters, the government so far has re- look at the net retention of insurance, Sharma is a research associate with Pahle frained from insuring its properties i.e., the insurance amount not ceded to India Foundation. Views expressed are and assets primarily because of the reinsurers by Indian insurers makes personal.

34 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019

The state Many capital projects undertaken by the corporation have been delayed regardless of being the richest municipality in India with of finance a budget size fof Rs 394 billion (buget estimate) while also having sufficient funds (Rs 236 billion).

at India’s The total income earned by the MCGM deliced marginally from RS 271 crore in FY 2016 to Rs 268 crore in FY 2017 due to richest lower premium income from fungible FSI and staircase and lift premium charges, the Janaagraha report said.

civic body income analysis

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai’s (MCGM) preseted the budget for the FY 2017-18 which highlighted Source: MCGM Financial statments (http://bit.ly/2ATLaDS the current state of financial management. A report released by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy has provided an outline of the financial statements of the MCGM. Here are the key takeaways from the report:

Photo courtesy://www.janaagraha.org/files/Publications/mcmg_final.Pdf 36 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 The expenditure made by MCGM was also marginally higher in FY17 at Rs 212 crore as compared to Rs 205 crore which were led primarily by operations and maintainance cost as well as administrative expenses.

The corporation has outstanding receivables (gross) of around Rs 171.6 billion comprising mainly of receivable towards property tax, water and sewerage tax etc. Provision coverage towards bad and doubtful debts declined from around 40 percent in FY13 to 31 percent in FY17.

Receivables analysis (inRbn)

Source: MCGM Financial statments (http://bit.ly/2ATLaDS

The corporation lags in timely execution of projects, leading to slow conversion of CWIP into fixed assets. During FY13-17, it capitalised fixed assets (gross) of Rs 106 billion against CWIP of INR170bn as at FY13. CWIP stood at Rs 243 billion (around 22 percent of total assets) at FY17 end.

Investments in fixed deposits (general fund) jumped from Rs 107 billion in FY13 to Rs 236 billion (approx. 20 percent of total assets) in FY17. MCGM has fixed deposits (excluding earmarked funds for pension & provident fund) of about Rs 511 billion, representing nearly 42 percent of total assets. For the full briefing see: http://www.janaagraha.org/files/publications/MCMG_final.pdf

www.GovernanceNow.com 37 people politics policy performance ashish asthana Society

despair and misery. Yet she sees hope. trafficking, the duo has one more thing Ruksana was 21 when a youth be- common – they are members of a traf- friended her in her village in the ficking survivors’ collective called swampy South 24 Parganas district of Bandhan Mukti. Members of the group The West Bengal. Their friendship grew spread awareness about human traf- and she came to believe he would help ficking in their communities and help her break out of poverty. He got her to survivors access their rights and en- board a train to Mumbai, promising titlements under existing government her a good job and a happy life. When schemes. One such scheme is the vic- she reached there, she found herself tim compensation scheme (VCS), im- light in a brothel for which the youth was plemented by state governments un- a pimp. It was on the outskirts of the der provisions of Section 357A of the big city, and even if she had gathered Code of Criminal Procedure to provide the courage to escape, she might have financial support to victims of crimes, failed. By the time she was rescued especially sexual offences including in December 2016 by the Goranbose rape, acid attacks, crime against chil- turns Gram Bikash Kendra, an anti-traffick- dren, human trafficking, etc. In 2016, ing NGO based in West Bengal, and the centre introduced the central vic- the Rescue Foundation, a Maharashtra tim compensation fund (CVCF) scheme, NGO, she had suffered months of un- with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore, speakable physical and mental abuse. to supplement the state VCFs. Howev- amber another participant in the group er, there has been an absurd disparity session, Nilufa (name changed), in compensation amount paid by state shares her story, not very different governments: the payouts range from despite a new crPc from Ruksana’s. She was pushed into as less as Rs 10,000 to the upper ranges prostitution at a brothel in Pune. When of nearabout Rs 10 lakh. “People who section, victims of she was rescued in February 2013, she are victimised and sold into sex traf- had been there two years, forced to ficking or other forms of human traf- trafficking find it serve many clients daily. ficking belong to the socioeconomic Trouble is, victims of sex trafficking underprivileged section. For them, difficult to obtain like Ruksana and Nilufa usually come this compensation makes a huge dif- compensation from from poor families in backward areas ference. Whether it is in terms of their of the country. After being rescued, treatment or for their rehabilitation, the state. Some they return to homes where they are they need financial assistance more seen as a burden. Worse, the stigma than anyone else,” says Roop Sen, a voluntary groups are of sex work hangs over them. Many researcher and co-founder of Sanjog, of them contract sexually transmitted a Kolkata-based technical resource trying to change that diseases, including the HIV virus, or organisation. The problem, he says, is develop full-fledged AIDS. Seeking that survivors hardly know that they treatment is difficult even in the have the right to get compensation for cities; in villages, seeking affordable the crimes committed against them. treatment means going to government And even if they know of it, they are hospitals in nearby towns. Word gets hardly equipped to follow the complex Saroj Kumar Pattnaik around and they are punished by cruel process for obtaining compensation. talk about their past, as if they weren’t This is where organisations like victims but wrong-doers. Sanjog and Goranbose Gram Bikash “It’s not at all easy for me. I pre- Kendra and support groups like Band- n a black salwar-suit and match- ferred to stay indoors for most of the han Mukti, of which Ruksana and Nil- ing headscarf, Ruksana (name days after returning home,” says Nilu- ufa are members, step in. “We provide changed) listens carefully from fa. “I had become a sort of extra burden them the necessary information about a corner of the hall. Members to my parents, who were already hard- the schemes and the procedures that of her support group are talk- pressed to meet the daily needs of the need to be followed in order to help ingI about their suffering, struggles, family. I needed Rs 3,000-4,000 monthly them make decision,” says Nihar Ran- aspirations and achievements. At her for my tests and medication, but it was jan Raptan, secretary-executive direc- turn, she slowly opens up. Like that of very difficult to organise.” tor of Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra. many others, her story is one of deceit, Apart from being survivors of sex Says Nilufa, “I’d not heard anything

38 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 about victim compensation until I trial and an ac- joined Bandhan Mukti and started in- cused is convicted. But Sec- teracting with social workers at the tion 357A CrPC gives victims of crime Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra office. the opportunity to apply for compen- victim would continue such violation With their support and guidance, I ap- sation before district legal service au- and perpetrate gross inhumanity on plied for victim compensation with the thorities even before the trial begins. the victim”. It ordered the state to pay DlSa (District legal Service authority) Unfortunately, the new section is not the victim in ten days. In August 2018, in 2016. We have heard that some vic- very well known, as lawyers don’t en- Salma received Rs 3 lakh of the Rs 4 tims have received Rs 10,000-20,000 in counter it in day-to-day practice. Also lakh she was entitled to. She used part compensation. Then a lawyer told us because they don’t often deal with of it to undergo surgery and invested we were victims of trafficking, so we trafficking victims.” part of it in a plot of land. are entitled to much more.” He says that in Salma’s case the activist roop Sen calls it a landmark After much trouble, in February court ruled, on June 25 last year, that judgment that could help hundreds of 2018, Nilufa got Rs 6 lakh in compen- “denial of compensation to such a victims move on with their lives. “Get- sation, and in October that year, Ruk- ting compensation gives a victim the sana got Rs 4 lakh. Both these amounts power to be able to access all main- were from the West Bengal govern- Advocate Kaushik Gupta stream services, and I think it is ex- ment’s VCS 2017. tremely revolutionary and has the po- Says advocate Anirban Tarafdar, says Sec 357A of the CrPC tential to change the game,” he says. “From being kidnapped to being sub- And Gupta says, “We should not forget jected to repeated physical and sexu- gives victims of crime that these are people for whom staying al violence, rape, harassment – traf- the opportunity to apply alive each day is a struggle. Denial of ficking victims suffer a lot. The state compensation further victimises them.” has the responsibility of compensat- for compensation even In support groups like Bandhan ing them for all those crimes, and the before the trial begins. Mukti, news of the judgment has cre- amount should include compensation ated a new sense of responsibility for all those crimes.” But it’s not well known, among survivors. They are now cam- not everyone is as lucky as ruksana and it’s not used often paigning for other survivors to get en- and Nilufa. Salma, another survivor of titled compensation and bring their trafficking, had to take her demand to for victims of trafficking. traffickers to book. And, more impor- the Calcutta high court after it was re- Gupta took up the case tantly, carry on with their lives. Nilufa jected successively by the district and has already bought land in her village. state legal service authorities who said of a trafficking victim in Ruksana is thinking of doing the same. the case was still being tried. Calcutta high court and But for now, she wants to focus on her Advocate Kaushik Gupta, who treatment. n fought Salma’s case in the high court, she was given Rs 4 lakh says, “Earlier, there was Section 357 in compensation. Pattnaik is a freelance journalist who CrPC, which said compensation should writes on rights issues, including human be paid only after conclusion of the trafficking.

www.GovernanceNow.com 39 people politics policy performance

Health

geetanjali Minhas

hen Dr Shruti Kamdi (pictured on left), a transfusion special- ist at a leading mumbai hospital, had herW first child, she struggled to nurse her baby as she was unable to secrete enough milk. Admitted to a private hospital, she was put on medication to increase breast milk. But that didn’t help much. And four months after the delivery, she had to put her baby on breast milk substitutes (BMS). not wanting to take any chances during her second pregnancy, Dr Ka- mdi tried traditional fixes and ate fenu- greek laddoos to increase milk. She also brought stimulation pumps for lactation. But all her attempts failed and the doctors advised her to spoon-feed the baby. After three months of her delivery, she came in contact with Dr Rupal Dalal at the Shrimati malati Dhanukar Maa aur Shishu Poshan Kendra in Ma- halaxmi through a WhatsApp group. She went to the centre and was advised about correct breastfeeding techniques. “I went there to learn about the types of complementary feeds (food to be given after six months); instead I was told that even surrogate mothers produce milk with some medical help. It was inspiring for me. After that I completely stopped formula feed and only breastfed my second child,” says Dr Kamdi. She admits that she did not know of such techniques during her first pregnancy. She is also surprised that none of her doctors advised the breast crawl (done immediately after baby’s birth) or kan- for a healthy garoo mother care (where baby is put on mother’s breast), which may help in lactation. “Despite having enough milk, it is frustrating to deny your child health tomorrow benefits of breast milk. There is no concern for lactation [in hospitals]. Instead the focus is on surgeries, treating diseases and therapeutics,” she says. Her hus- Breastfeeding will not only remove the burden band, a pediatric anesthetist, was also unaware of such lactation techniques. of generational malnutrition but also prevent recounting her second delivery in a Mumbai hospital, former Palghar Zila occurrence of cancer in mothers Parishad CEO Nidhi Chaudhari says that

40 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 she was advised to breastfeed her baby “With almost The 10-minute tutorial videos give but she was not successful in lactating. 40 percent step-by-step guidance for the nutrition Dr Dalal advised her and pointed her to babies born of pregnant or lactating mothers and some YouTube videos. She learned the babies, breastfeeding and complemen- techniques. “While working on malnu- in private tary feeding in the first 1,000 days. The trition in Palghar I realised that breast- hospitals, videos are managed by a computer en- feeding is critical. At that time I never baby food gineering team of IIT-B led by professor knew that I will plan a second child. companies Kannan Moudgalya. The cradle position and posture are The videos are available on Health critical in initiation of breastfeeding and are building relationships Spoken Tutorial channel on YouTube in later continuing with the flow, express- with healthcare sector and English, Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil ing breast milk and retaining it for the the practice of introducing and Konkani languages on 12 different child. The baby must be laid on mothers’ formula feeds at the time of topics about mother and child’s nutri- breast as soon as it is born and breast- tion in the first 1,000 days. The videos fed even if its weight is coming down, birth is rampant.” will soon be available in 22 languages which happens initially. Mother’s milk covering 45 topics. The videos can be is healthy, hygienic, ensures immunity dr arun gupta downloaded and accessed offline. and the baby gets all the required nutri- Central coordinator, Breastfeeding “After the success of our spoken tu- tion. It is like demand and supply where Promotion Network of India torials on other projects we wanted to the more you feed your baby the more expand into health training, particular- you generate,” she says. ly breastfeeding skills due to shortage “There is no awareness on colos- trum, which is very healthy for the Prohibitions under infant Milk Substitutes (iMS) act baby. Babies cannot digest protein- • Nobody should advertise the distribution, sale or supply of infant milk substitutes or feeding rich cow milk. Once the child is de- bottles. livered they [hospitals] don’t bother. • Nobody should give an impression that feeding of infant milk substitutes is equivalent to every hospital must have a lactation mother’s milk. consultant,” adds Chaudhari. • Nobody should take part in the sale of infant milk substitutes or feeding bottles or infant The above examples are of educat- foods. ed urban women, where one of them • No container or label shall have pictures of an infant or woman or both. is a doctor. One can only imagine the • Infants milk substitutes shall not be displayed outside maternity and children hospitals. plight of poor and uneducated mothers who suffer not only due to their lack of knowledge but also lack of a issues and require boiled water. Slum of trained people on lactation. These clean and hygienic environment be- women use contaminated water for for- videos will enormously empower mil- fore and post delivery. mula feed which leads to diarrhoea and lions of parents, health workers, doc- According to the findings of Na- slow death of the child. Besides, formu- tors, nurses, nutritionists by imparting tional Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4, la feeds are processed and loaded with life-enriching knowledge that can dras- only 9.6 percent of children get mini- sugar and make children sick. Any first- tically reduce infant mortality. The vid- mum adequate diet from 6 months to time mother who walked into our clinic eos on breastfeeding have received ex- 23 months of age and only 54.9 percent was predominantly nipple latching. cellent results. We guarantee that these children under 6 months get exclusive Lack of knowledge on correct breast- videos are suitable for self learning,” breast milk. In terms of children in dif- feeding technique on part of mothers, says professor Moudgalya. ferent wealth quintiles, 22 percent of wrong notions and misinformation The first 1,000 days, i.e., from concep- richest children, up to 30 percent of coupled with total lack of support in tion to two years of age, are critical for middle class and upper middle class the hospital and direct push of formula a baby and correct nutrition can decide children in India, are malnourished. feed, lactation consultants pushing for the baby’s health by reducing infection, Says Dr Rupal Dalal, paediatrician nipple shields and breast pumps make risk of chronic conditions like diabetes and a former consultant with depart- breastfeeding difficult.” and heart diseases, increase immunity, ment of health and women and child To bridge this gap, Dr Dalal along brain health with better memory, con- development, Maharashtra, who has ex- with her team of expert volunteers and centration, and judgment. Moreover, tensively worked on malnutrition and IIT-B has been counseling mothers on breast milk reduces the chances of infant and young child feeding, “Since nutrition, lactation and complementary breast and ovarian cancers in mothers. the 1960s when most mothers starting feeding through Maa aur Shishu Poshan “Mothers lack support at birth for formula feeds (milk substitutes), the Abhiyan. The project has several Spoken breastfeeding in the hospital and at wisdom of our grandmothers is long Tutorial videos and a toll-free helpline home. Right from the stage of preg- forgotten. Formula feeds have hygiene (1800 200 2098) was started recently. nancy, mothers need to be trained in

www.GovernanceNow.com 41 people politics policy performance

Health

correct breastfeeding techniques. If the Act, with the 2002 amendment, aims to mother knows skills of breastfeeding protect and promote breastfeeding and before going into delivery, she is em- proper use of infant foods. Nestlé is not powered. It has to be part of the cur- 42% alone; many baby food companies align riculum of medical and nursing colleg- of children born in the last 5 years were with hospitals and doctors to promote es and even undergraduate studies as breastfed within one hour of birth their supplements. these are life skills,” says Dr Dalal. Dr Arun Gupta, central coordinator, India has 1 crore severely mal- BPNI, says that over the last 25 years it nourished children under the age of has been observed that India sells ap- five. Lack of knowledge on nutrition 38.4% proximately 27,000 tons of baby milk is the major reason for malnutrition, annually for children below three which results in infant mortality and children under 5 are stunted years, out of which 10,000 tonnes an- has an adverse economic impact, re- nually is consumed by babies under 6 veals NFHS 4. Poor nutrition leads to months at a time when breastfeeding loss of IQ by several points, thereby is critically recommended. On average, drastically reducing a person’s intelli- 20% a baby in India during first six months gence. Malnutrition consequences are of the children from richest families in india consumes one can of powder milk. cyclic in nature; a stunted girl child at are malnourished “The reason for this could be that In- two years will give birth to low weight dia is producing a large amount of ani- baby and takes two-three generations mal milk. In my opinion, powder milk to combat stunting in future genera- consumption should reduce. For some tions. If not tackled within this period children, if they are denied breast milk, the damage is irreversible. Maternal up to 30% it is a question of life and death as it health experts governance now spoke reduces risks of pneumonia and diar- of middle-class and upper-middle-class to said that focused attention on ma- rhoea. New evidence is increasingly say- children are malnourished ternal care (pre and post delivery) and ing that breast milk decreases obesity child care with exclusive breastfeeding Source: NFHS 4 and diabetes in children. Besides a large for the first six months and appropriate number of other health benefits, there complementary feeding subsequently are psychological and emotion bene- alone will bring down the severity of health and family welfare (MoHFW), fits,” he says. malnutrition. which is responsible for promoting “With almost 40 percent babies born But there is one more problem to breastfeeding in India, forwarded the in private hospitals, baby food compa- deal with. Recently, Nestlé was under matter to the union ministry of wom- nies are building relationships with the the scanner after Breastfeeding Pro- en and child development (MoWCD). healthcare sector and the practice of motion Network of India (BPNI) alleged Nestlé has denied these allegations. introducing formula feeds at the time that the Swiss food giant had organ- As per BPNI, Nestle violated the In- of birth is rampant. This sends a strong ised an industry-supported meeting fant Milk Substitutes (IMS), Feeding signal to the families about necessity of intended to influence doctors into pre- Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of baby foods,” adds Dr Gupta. scribing their baby food in India. Act- Production, Supply and Distribution) Moreover, for working mothers, ing on the complaint, the ministry of Act, 1992 (see box on pg 41). The IMS who are juggling office and home, baby foods offer an easy option. The Mater- nity Benefits (Amendment) Act, 2017, “Right from the stage of pregnancy, mothers which offers 26 weeks paid maternity need to be trained in correct breastfeeding leave, was implemented only two years ago. And the Act is restricted to the or- techniques. Before going into delivery if the ganised sector only. Also, according to mother knows skills of breastfeeding she is a survey conducted by Teamlease Ser- empowered. It has to be part of the curriculum vices, the Act may hinder the entry of new women into the workforce as it of medical and nursing colleges and even will cause an estimated job loss of 11 undergraduate studies as these are life skills.” lakh to 18 lakh in 2018-19 for women. A right combination of laws, infrastructure, and correct attitudes can in- dr Rupal dalal crease the awareness around breast- Paediatrician and a former consultant with department of health and women and feeding and bring down malnutrition. n child development, Maharashtra [email protected]

42 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019

neXt A Click Into GOv Digital Governance people politics policy performance

e-Gov Notes 43,088 All mandis to link with e-NAM platform by 2022 Villages lack basic he government is planning to link all the 7,500 agricultural produce market com- telephony services Tmittees (APMCs) along with the weekly and bi-weekly temporary markets (haats) Source: Telecom minister Manoj Sinha in parliament across the country with e-NAM – the centralised online commodities trading platform by 2022. India and Uzbekistan bilateral Currently, 585 APMCs are linked with e-NAM and now more than 400 will be cooperation in e-Gov linked to this portal by 2020, taking the total to 1,000 APMCs which are online. That apart, there are around 14,500 temporary mandis dealing in agri and non-agri goods he union cabinet chaired by prime minis- across the country, which the ministry of agriculture and farmer welfare wants to in- Tter Narendra Modi has approved the Mem- terlink with the National Agriculture e-Market (e-NAM). orandum of Understanding (MoU) for promoting bilateral cooperation in the field of e-Governance. The agreement intends to promote close cooperation in the areas of e-Gov- ernance, IT education, implementation and “While we are gearing up roll out of generic configurable e-Governance products / devices in various sectors, devel- for the next wave of digital opment of data centers, etc. The MeitY has transformation, it is also been mandated to promote International Co- operation in the emerging and frontier areas of important to ensure the safety, ICT under bilateral and regional framework. It has entered into agreements with agencies of security and sovereignty of various countries to promote exchange of information in the identified areas. digital communications.” National e-governance awards r Jitendra Singh, minister of state (i/c), MoS Telecom minister Manoj Sinha at DPMO, personnel, public grievances, pen- India Telecom 2019 sions, atomic energy and space, gave Nation- al e-Governance awards to ministries/departments of the government of India which have excelled in the use of e-office and e-file in car- PM inaugurates PETROTECH 2019 rying out the day-to-day office work. As many he 13th edition of as 75 ministries / departments are actively us- TPETROTECH - 2019 was ing the e-office platform. The ministries / de- inaugurated by prime partments which received the awards are min- minister Narendra modi istry of heavy industries, ministry tribal affairs, at India Expo Centre, Greater Noida in Uttar ministry of corporate affairs, department of ex- Pradesh. In the inaugural penditure, ministry of civil aviation, ministry of address PM underlined mines, Niti Aayog, inter-state council secretar- the importance of energy iat and department of health research. as a key driver of socio- economic growth. PM said that suitably priced, stable IndiaFirst Life Insurance buys stake in and sustainable energy supply, is essential for rapid growth of the economy. It also helps the poor and deprived sections of society, to partake of economic benefits. CSC PM also said that the United States has become the world’s largest oil and ndiaFirst Life Insurance has bought nine gas producer after the shale revolution. However, there are signs of convergence, Ipercent stake in CSC e-Governance Servic- between cheaper renewable energy, technologies, and digital applications which es India Ltd. IndiaFirst Life Insurance is a joint may expedite the achievement of many sustainable development goals. PM told venture between Bank of Baroda, Andhra that it is the need of the hour “ ...move to responsible pricing, which balances Bank and Legal and General (UK), while CSC the interests of both the producer and consumer. We also need to move towards transparent and flexible markets for both oil and gas. Only then can we serve the is an integral part of Digital India initiative of energy needs of humanity in an optimal manner.” the government under the ministry of elec- tronics and information technology.

44 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 PSU Watch Govt okays plan to set up 12,000 MW solar projects he centre has ap- manufactured domestical- Tproved the ministry ly as per specifications and of new and renewable en- testing requirements fixed Railways get 8.74 lakh ergy’s proposal for imple- by MNRE. tonnes of rail from Sail mentation of the central The scheme will also public sector undertak- help in giving a push to the tate-run steel ings scheme phase two make in lndia initiative by Sgiant SaIl for setting up 12,000 MW encouraging government supplied 8.74 grid-connected solar pho- producers to procure so- lakh tonnes of tovoltaic (PV) power proj- lar cells and modules from rail to Indian ects with a viability gap funding (VGF) domestic manufacturers. It will create railways against support of Rs 8,580 crore. sufficient demand for domestically pro- the demand of The 12,000 MW or more capacity of duced solar PV cells and modules for 11.45 lakh tonnes by the national grid connected solar power projects next three to four years. transporter in 2017-18 fiscal. will be set up by the government pro- The proposal will provide direct The information was given by ducers in four years, i.e., from 2019-20 employment to around 60,000 people minister of state for steel Vishnu Deo to 2022-23, based on the terms and con- for about one year in pre-commission- Sai in Lok Sabha. He said against ditions specified in the government pro- ing activities/ construction phase and the demand of 10.05 lakh tonnes of ducer scheme. around 18,000 persons for about 25 rail, SAIL was able to provide only The scheme will mandate use years in the operation and maintenance 6.20 lakh tonnes to the railways in of both solar PV cells and modules period. 2016-17. The parliament was informed that the railways had placed a de- foundation stone for sub-stations laid in arunachal Pradesh mand of 14 lakh tonnes of rail for he foundation stone for seven extra high voltage (EHV) sub-stations and 24 low tension renewal and maintenance of tracks T(lT) sub-stations was recently laid by prime minister narendra modi at Itanagar in with the steel authority and the SaIl Arunachal Pradesh. The project would meet the national objectives of affordable round had committed the former to sup- the clock power supply to all, especially in the remote parts of the state. It would also help ply at least 10 lakh tonnes in 2018-19 in bringing the per capita power consumption of the state closer to the national average. fiscal. Power Grid Corporation of India Limited is implementing the project. To meet the rising demand of In- dian Railways, the minister said, SaIl has built universal rail mill at Srinagar-alusteng -drass-Kargil- eil inks a pact with Mongolia Bhilai Steel Plant which started pro- leh transmission line unveiled for oil refinery duction in 2016. rime minister n agree- Pnarendra modi ament was BHEL secures railway line dedicated the 220 kV inked between electrification order Srinagar-alusteng- PSU Engineers Drass-Kargil – Leh HEL has now forayed into the India Ltd of the transmission system field of track electrification. ministry of pe- B to the nation to en- BHEL said that against stiff troleum and sure uninterrupted international competitive bidding, it natural gas and power supply to la- has bagged an order for electrification the government of Mongolia through dakh round the year. The move would of 440 track kilometres railway line Mongol Refinery, state owned LLC, on give a fillip to the tourism sector and en- on engineering, procurement and the sidelines of PETROTECH-2019 event hance socio-economic development of construction basis. The Rs 350 crore in Greater Noida. EIL will be rendering Ladakh. order for railway line electrification project management consultancy ser- The project has been completed by is placed by central organisation vices to the government of Mongolia to Power Grid Corporation of India Lim- for Railway Electrification for set up an oil refinery plant in Mongolia. ited. Its foundation stone was laid on the sections; Birlanagar-Etawah, The mongolian government is working August 12, 2014 by the prime minister. Bhandai-Udi and Farrukhabad- to set up 1.5 million metric tonne per While inaugurating this project Modi Shikohabad (including mainpuri- annum greenfield crude oil refinery said, “We’ve left behind the culture of Etawah) of the north central railway. in Sainshand province, under a line of delays.” credit extended by India.

www.GovernanceNow.com 45 people politics policy performance

Book Review Gandhi’s essence The Mahatma’s message unfolds beautifully in this excellent selection of writings, republished for the sesquicentennial

ashish Mehta all are published also in Gujarati and Hindi, completing the three languages he primarily used. In Gujarati, the series is called ‘Gandhiji-no Akshar Deh’ – or a novice reader, MK Gan- Gandhi’s Body of Letters. ‘Akshar’ also dhi presents a formidable means imperishable: here – sharing his challenge. experiences and experiments for our The starting point is usu- edification, articulating his evolving vi- ally the autobiography, with sion of self-rule, inviting us to join him itsF well-known anecdotes which most on this journey of discovery – is the im- of us are familiar through school text- perishable Gandhi. books and films. If anything, they are This, then, is the challenge for a rather too familiar and some readers, reader. No wonder most novice read- looking for new material, get bored. ers leave the rich treasure of CWMG It also ends in the late 1920s, and thus untouched. Gopalkrishna Gandhi of- presents only a part of the life story. fers them hand-holding by making se- The next is Hind Swaraj: the ‘key text’, lections from the CWMG, among other the manifesto, the guide for spiritual- sources, presenting it chronologically political transformation inside out. but also grouped thematically. Thus, What next? Then there are about five this is Gandhi’s life and thought in his more volumes which were originally own words, in a single volume. It was intended as books – that is, not includ- published in 2007, and is being repub- ing countless anthologies others made lished with a new introduction by the from his writings. After the core, the editor on the occasion of the Mahat- scene opens up. ma’s 150th birth anniversary. many libraries have devoted whole This is not the first work to dip into sections, full of several bulging shelves, the hundred volumes and bring for us to Gandhiana. Indeed, there are full- the essence. Raghavan Iyer compiled fledged libraries devoted to nothing two similar anthologies about two de- other than Gandhiana: for example, cades ago – The Essential Writings of the one housed in the national gan- mahatma gandhi and The moral and dhi Museum across the Raj Ghat. At the Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi. heart of the collection is the Collected On the occasion of the Gandhi Sesqui- Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG). centennial, Oxford University Press In- the oxford india gandhi: every word that gandhi ever wrote in dia has brought out their fresh editions essential Writings thousands of letters or in editorials of too. Elsewhere, there is ‘The Essential (Revised edition) four journals he edited, every word he Writings’, edited by Judith Brown and Edited by Gopalkrishna uttered in public speeches, countless published in the incomparable Oxford Gandhi, OUP India, interviews – all is put together in 97 World Classics series. volumes. With two volumes of indexes The one edited by gopalkrishna gan- 910 pages, `1,495 and one collecting prefaces, the total dhi offers a more comprehensive view number rounds off at hundred. They of the unusual life. Viewed as a kind

46 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 ashish asthana of life-story, this should become reality of terror float in the air ev- more preferable over numerous erywhere, all the time. Like the excellent biographies. “Repetition deadly miasma of greenhouse has made one of the world’s most gas emissions from the relentless compelling, challenging, transfor- combustion of fossil fuels which mational, and passionate persons are likely, say experts, to cross his- the one thing he never was – bor- torical values and take the earth ing. It has made that most original beyond ‘a threshold of 2°C global person clichéd. One of my aims in warming’. A waiting disaster,” selecting passages from his works writes the editor. has been to redeem the living gan- “The Buddha’s Fire Sermon, dhi from the plaster-cast image of on which T.S. Eliot has rested The the Mahatma,” writes the editor in Waste Land, is playing out right in the introduction. front of us. The added advantage here is “It burns, said the Enlightened that the selections from the CWMG One. Everything burns. are complemented by those from “Hiroshima and Nagasaki know. “books with ‘Gandhi quotes’ writ- Vietnam knows. ten in his lifetime and the works “Chernobyl knows, Fukushima such as those of Millie Graham Po- knows. lak, Mahadev Desai, and Prabhu- “New York knows. Syria knows. das Gandhi, which also appeared The Rohingya know. All who are during his lifetime, as well as those threatened and bullied by those of and his immediate associates bigger and stronger than them, like Pyarelal, Manu Gandhi, and know. Nirmal Kumar Bose, which were “Does Gandhi have anything for published after Gandhi was no such a world?” more”. Yes: a “terror-struck, strife-torn, The 150th anniversary is yet an- and self-obsessed world looks to other occasion that should remind Gandhi as it looks for a politically us of the significance of Gandhi’s ethical future,” argues the editor. life-work and the urgent need to There have been many other explore alternatives. In a fresh in- travellers to that land, but Gandhi troduction, Gopalkrishna Gandhi remains the best guide on this jour- raises these questions again for a ney and this majestic volume can world more and more divided by be a significant step in that direc- greed and hatred, a world of cli- tion for the novice reader.n mate crisis and walled boundaries. “The prospect of war and the [email protected]

‘ecologically ethical future’?

As permafrost melts and the Antarctica gets less and less cold, experts And he would have spoken searingly to the Indian middle class, as tell us if we do not contain warming at something like 2°C or below, it goes rapaciously on its consumerist spree, unmindful of deprivations water scarcity will grow, there will be more droughts in the tropics and which rare journalists like Palagummi Sainath report bravely on. mid-latitudes, there will be more cyclones, migrations, conflicts, and Some give amazing examples of the change that can slow down disease. resource-exhaustion. Some have made changes, major lifestyle changes. T.S. Ananthu, an Indian engineer trained at Stanford worked for IBM Not the ‘big cats’, though. Not enough by half. They will banter on in the USA for years. He could have spent the rest of his life there. But carbon trading but will they gouge, extract, cut, burn any less than they something made him return and set up an organic farm on degraded land have been doing? contrastively near the high-tech city of Bangalore. Navadarshanam, or Gandhi would have asked the world’s corporate giants to bring New Vision as it is called, shows how an ecologically intelligent lifestyle appetites down. He would not have spared their Indian counterparts is as possible as it is vital. either, many of who mine without sensitivity, fell without compunction, But Ananthu is only returning a compliment. extract water and burn energy without restraint. –From the ‘Introduction to the Sesquicentennial Edition’

www.GovernanceNow.com 47 people politics policy performance

Book Review

anushka dixit thinking and the reasons we have them. Insights from this analysis can make Happily us more rational, mentally healthy and happy,” he tells Governance Now. here’s no dearth of self-help Many of the ideas in the book have books. They come in a multitude been explored in self-help books and of single-topic and hybrid variet- practised by thousands, but Anand’s working ies: habit change, management, presentation is an inviting primer to the Thabit change in management, spiritu- art of being productive and creative. He ality, spirituality in management...you introduces multiple philosophies and get the drift. Happiness at Work: Mind- scientific theories which could prove fulness, Analysis, and Well-Being, by R helpful to 21st century professionals. away! Anand, adds to the list, promising the The book extends ancient ideas to mod- dream of fulfilment at what most of us ern times; however, some parts may be Happiness at the work place do for a major part of our lives. too technical for the intended audience. It’s pitched at The new generation, is worth working for. A new managers and white- moreover, looks for book promises you a new collars; the soldier everything online: in Siachen, the rail- courses, counselling, mindset and a schedule to way mechanic, the even self-help. So, it garbage truck opera- would perhaps have begin work on that project tor may perhaps be been better to link the served better by the book with an online Bhagwad Gita, or if website offering free- they are of a different bies such as question- temperament, the Ha- naires, productivity numan Chalisa. logs, charts, etc. An anand is a human extended presence of resources profession- this sort will also im- al, and he draws from prove its reach. psychology, science, The book aims to leadership lessons, find a fix for hard- spirituality and so on ships at work and the to teach young profes- R anand pursuit of happiness. sionals to use medita- It sets out to create a tion and self-analysis solid foundation in- tools to deal with the stress of too many stead of just offering, like many online meetings and phone calls, tight deadlines, resources do, ten to-do steps. The book long commutes, missed promotions. also discusses the psychology of devel- In ten chapters, Anand speaks of how opment, tying adult hassles to childhood to identify stress, its sources, and ways experiences, and the conditioning that to handle it. There is a questionnaire to makes us behave as we do. Real life and profile one’s stress patterns. He explains hypothetical situations are presented as how distortions (universal and per- examples of problematic behaviour and sonal) in thinking affect our moods and how mental tactics can correct them. worldview. In conversation, he empha- There are boxed items offering ‘Happi- sises how one can dig deep and reclaim ness mantras’. ourselves from these distortions which A senior vice president for human re- happiness at Work: have created our “default” view of the sources at HCL Technologies, Anand has Mindfulness, analysis, world. “Observing ourselves at work two decades of work experience. He is and Well-Being and at interactions through the tools of also on the board of the National Human By R Anand psychological analysis will give clues to Resource Network. This is his second Sage Publications, this pre-programming. Equally, studying book. The earlier one was Job Readiness n 232 pages, `395 our dreams can give us a direct view of for IT & ITES. our unconscious. Together, we can get an idea of the nature of our distorted [email protected]

48 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019 sPeCiAL OFFeR JUST PAY for 24 issues of `150 a digital subscription

Subscribe to the digital edition of Governance Now. Read each issue on your smartphone or tab.

GO TO www.GoVerNaNCeNow.Com FOR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

You Can also subsCribe To The PrinT version

Term Cover Price Postage 1 Year 720 Free 2 Years 1,440 Free 3 Years 2,160 Free

PAYMeNT OPTiONs a Pay online at governancenow.com/magazine-subscription a Or pay through cheque or DD (in favour of “SAB Events and Governance Now Media Limited”) using the form below:

Name Address Mobile City State Pin E-mail Occupation Please find enclosed DD/Cheque for ` Dated

For further queries contact Devendra Kumar: [email protected]. +91 9999140365

Terms and Conditions: 1.This is a limited period offer. 2. Governance Now will not be responsible for postal delays, transit loses or mutilation of the forms. 3. All disputes are subject to laws of India and exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi. 4. Governance Now reserves the right to extend or terminate this offer at any point or to accept or reject any or all forms at its absolute discretion without assigning any reason whatsoever. 5. Allow 3-4 weeks time for processing of the subscription. Subscription would be processed only after realization of payments. 6. Payments can be made through Cheque/DD payable at par . Cash payments will not be accepted.

a Sri Adhikari Brothers enterprise * T & C apply on a personal

note Rabbi Shergill Photo courtesy: Paramjit chawla Singer

Punjabi singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Rabbi languages, which were the primary connections Shergill rose to fame in 2014 with his chart- between the people. As the words become less buster song ‘Bullah Ki Jaana’ from his debut sophisticated, so do our songs and consequently album ‘Rabbi’. Inspired by rock and Punjabi folk our appreciation of life. Then there’s the formi- music, he uses Punjabi language to create dable intellectual mountain of grasping intrica- acoustic rock-based ballads. His poetic cies of algorithms, OTT platforms, IPR, contracts, and socially relevant lyrics instantly etc. Historically, art found a mutually connected connected with an urban crowd who mass of people to address but today it’s cursed to loved him for his genuine and origi- negotiate a disconnected and nuclearised assort- nal approach to his songs. His songs ment of people. Heretofore, art holds up a moral, are deeply philosophical, blend ancient aesthetic compass but, today, it has lost itself. and forgotten Punjabi phrases into Your views about contemporary Punjabi mu- contemporary Indian sic: It resembles a bodybuilder fed on steroids rock music. – very robust on the outside and failing organs on the inside. It’s got the same 30 melodies playing on a loop, same regressive subject matter – He objectified women, casteist pride and empty ex- has hortations to Punjabiyat. It’s either screechy or also preachy. But to its credit, it has acquired size and worked with muscle. award-winning What can the government do to preserve and mix engineer Gus- promote the literary and cultural heritage of tavo Celis for some Punjabi music and poetry? Stop meddling with tracks in his third language. Weed out forcible inclusions into it. In- album titled ‘III’. struct students, secondary school onwards, into historical Punjab aesthetics – the architecture, If not a musician: Writer. culture and anthropology of Harappa, Taxila, et How has digitisation affected al. Farid, Nanak, Waris Shah, Sultan Bahu, Bulleh the music industry? Profound- Shah, Hashim, Puran Singh, Shiv Batalvi and ly. New classes of intermedi- Harbhajan Singh, reserve bandwidth for folk ary platforms like YouTube and classical music. Set up of FTII’s reward cul- have sprung up and have got tural excellence, hold zero-carbon open-air arts an unhealthy stranglehold festivals. There’s plenty it can do. on the audience. Music has Major challenges India is facing today? The been reduced to a line of code, way I see it, the greatest challenge is how to se- an algorithm. Fidelity too has come cure its integrity, deliver its citizens from stric- down significantly from the CD era ture, and raise their quality of life without oblit- and WAV format to the present mp3/ erating nature. Be nice if we might, avoid etching mp4. Gone are the tactile qualities of deeper the old lines of religion, caste, elites, and holding a physical recording, the ro- entitlement. mance of reading credits, lyrics, and How does the social and political climate in liner notes. Overall, coldness has de- the country affect your creative expression? scended on the music business. A great deal. I’m deeply connected to everything What are the challenges and op- happening around and so is my art. portunities for independent artists in Your greatest inspiration: Fabric of life. The in- the music industry today? Foremost is to terconnectedness of everything. be an authentic artiste rooted in a place, here Your favourite pastime: These days it’s Netflix. and now. Torrents of suggestions are stream- At present, you are busy with: A slew of my ing right now from the west – impeding, in- own releases. terfering and manipulating an organic Indian Your advice to aspiring singers: Form a connec- creative expression. Then there’s the problem tion with the text. Become lovers of poetry. of linguistic regression across India. Most Indian cultures have voluntarily dismantled their own – As told to Geetanjali Minhas

50 GovernanceNow | February 28, 2019

Posting on 1st and 16th of the month PRn: uP/gBd-150/2018-20